Hometown Tour: Pensacola Beach

Safety Pensacola Beach A lot’s been done in the last few years to improve beach safety.

by Chad Petri

Published: Tue, May 19, 2009 - 4:50 pm CST

At Pensacola's pier, you'll always find a fisherman eager to show off his catch of the day.

“Well the fishing's good, the prices are cheap here generally speaking you can normally catch something anytime you come out here,” says fisherman Richard Livesay. Keeping watch over those fishermen and anyone else on the sand are a team of almost 40 lifeguards.

“We normally keep a medical bag with oxygen, bandages, medical supplies,” says Senior Lifeguard Council Vaughan as he goes over his plethora of safety gear. Lifeguards also depend heavily on four watch towers. They cost $40,000 each; Vaughan says they're worth every penny.

“It's an all weather design you can get inside when it's raining it protects us from the sun, provides great shade and stays cooler in the summertime,” says Vaughan. While post-hurricane revitalization is evident throughout the area, sometimes Pensacola Beach benefits when hurricanes don't hit so close to home.

“You know unfortunately the Texas coast got a pretty good beating last year we've seen way more spring breakers, we had a weekend back in March when 17,000 cars came through the toll plaza,” says Santa Rosa County Island Authority Director of Public Safety Bob West. In 2003 Pensacola was named one of the deadliest beaches in America because several drowning.

“Since then we've dramatically improved our training, increased our staffing we've made significant improvement in our medical and rescue equipment,” says West. Now west says it's down to only four in six years. The lifeguards also have a new building to house equipment and personnel. We'll have our crew in Pensacola Beach for a Hometown Tour tonight at 6.

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